powers, with an accuracy and
capacity inconceivable, it located a point in the universe, and he
sensed something strange, and it completed its voyage!
Chapter 15
The Stars
For a moment he
had a weird sensation of something happening, as he came to, and he
opened his eyes and examined his body!
He had emerged
somewhere out of the gateway but he was in complete darkness! He
realized how little he remembered of anything! He could not recall
anything from some point in the gateway where he had lost
consciousness, and had no recall of anything after! It felt like an
incredible amount of time had passed, and he could not recall why,
and he realized that it could have been the time effects of the
gateway!
He realized that he had actually survived,
and what must be the most dangerous mission and anything that he
had ever undertaken, and he realized that he could have actually
avoided the whole lot and the discovery of the gateway if he had
not given them the indestructible material, and he considered his
earlier thoughts of it at the ice station and what value it would
have if they recreated it!
In the surrounding blackness he thought he
saw something shift, which he examined, and as his eyes adjusted he
saw a faint blue radiance, which he considered as a star, but he
made a closer examination of his surroundings by feeling around him
and felt he was in something artificial, in some form of structure,
and he felt a hard floor and he stood up, in his weakened state,
and felt slightly sick, and dizziness, and held himself firmly
upwards.
When he felt better he felt a faint vibration
from something running through a wall and touched it and tried to
realize what it was, and what material it was, but he was unable
to, and knew he had to have light to realize anything!
He returned to staring at where the faint
blue radiance was and finally realized that he was actually in some
form of room and looking at a crack in the structure.
He considered if he had been mistaken and if
it was some form of reflection, but now in a more alert state he
positively recognized it was what he had attained it to be.
He gently approached the crack, which went
into something, and watched it create a vague beam of blueness
along a black wall. He could not imagine what it could be! What
could be there?
For a second his emotions ran amok thinking
of the incredible experience and voyage through the universe he had
taken, virtually on the brink of existence, seeing the spectacular
view of the universe and what it really was!
In the darkness he felt an eerie sensation
that the place was stranger! He sensed a presence, as though
something was nearby, and he wondered if it was at the blueness
through the crack!
He slowly moved up to the crack and was
dreamily observing it when he started to realize that it was an
entrance to somewhere, and he realized that it was a door and he
gripped it and pushed its black shape, and it opened out, and
strange lights blasted out at him everywhere, giving flashes and
beams of radiance!
He staggered in, feeling how sore and tired
his legs were, trying to see the interior and it became more
perceptible and he saw a room full of beaming colored lights and
controls.
To his side he spotted speckles in the
darkness there, and he moved further over, and realized that he was
glaring out at the stars of deep space!
He actually was on a moon station in the
depths of the stars!
He realized that the gateway had locked onto
the nearest object and best place to situate him and that he was
out on some moon!
He searched through the blur of controls in
the dim room, only lighted by controls, looking for anything
familiar, daring not to touch anything.
He realized it was actually out in the
deepest depths of the stars! Galaxies away from where any human had
gone before!
It seemed to be desolate, left out in the
depths of space, endlessly trapped in time and space.
His thirst for knowledge was increasing and
he insisted
C. J. Cherryh
Learning to Kill: Stories
John O'Riley
Brenda Sinclair
Christopher George
Stephen Lloyd Jones
Karl Iagnemma
Celya Bowers
Jill Gregory
Aria Cunningham